Cats & Dogs

Saturday I had a family photo shoot with the family of one of my former wedding clients.  It was already raining at the time of the shoot, but there was a church nearby with covered areas I figured we could use.  One of the sons is heading to Iraq soon, and I was afraid we wouldn’t have a chance to reschedule, so we decided to go forward with the shoot.  Those of you who were in Austin on Saturday know that what started with rain quickly developed into a crazy downpour with lots of wind and plummeting temperatures.  Although we were out of the direct rain, we all ended up pretty soaked with the wind blowing the rain around!  Lucky for me, these guys were a super fun, relaxed group, so we still had a great time.

At the end, they decided to have some fun with the umbrella, to preserve the memories of this crazy photo shoot.  I love fun-loving clients!

My Hero

This is ‘K’, the son of one of my closest friends. When I was visiting one day, she told me about how much he loves dressing up. She showed me all his costumes & I knew I *had* to do this shoot. As you might guess, it was a long shoot with lots of wardrobe changes! He was a trooper (a storm trooper, actually). I’m so pleased with the results.

and close ups of a couple of my favorite shots:

Pictures of the bossman (Auction winner #1)

In my non-photography job, I am blessed to work for a very cool boss.  For one thing, he was good enough to support my fundraising auction by making a winning bid for the photo session & photo book.  Secondly, it has always been apparent to me that family is important to him, and as a result, he is great about supporting a healthy work/life balance for his employees.  

Having heard stories about his girls over the years, I was excited to have the chance to meet them & photograph the whole family a couple weeks ago.  Their personality & spunk abound.  The girls are simply adorable.  I truly enjoyed capturing the interactions of this sweet family.  

(Most of these photos were taken in their front yard and right around their home.  Sentimentalist that I am, I like to imagine that one day these girls will find a special worth in these images of themselves at their childhood home.)

These next 2 photo collages are full pages facing each other in the photo book I designed from this session.  Check back tomorrow to see some other spreads from the book.

A new post

Well, here we are.  The start of a new week, and a new blog post.  After many weeks without a new post.

We’ve been busy around here, traveling here and there, and trying to determine where we’ll be living in the fall.  In the meantime, I have also been busy with some photography projects!  I had a chance to work with STG, one of my corporate clients.  They occasionally call me to come take headshots for a new employee, and I get the chance to visit with my friend Lauren, who works the front desk.  It’s good. 🙂

Then, I also had the opportunity to photograph my boss’s family.  The shoot included 2 cute girls, 2 smart dogs, 2 sweet cats, 1 fish in a glass, my boss & his wife.  Daniel was there as my assistant.  I got some excellent photos, and we ate some delicious mexican food at the end of the shoot.  Good, good, good.  My boss was one of the winners of the auction, and I’ve already designed his photo book.  I’ll share some of those images soon!

My most recent photo project was senior pictures for my friend Becca.  I can’t believe she’s already a senior.  She did such a fantastic job working with the camera, and she’s so beautiful!  Daniel & I totally agree that she has a celebrity look-alike, particularly when she’s giving the serious face.  Rather than tell you who we think she looks like, I’m going to let you tell me in the comments.  What do you think??  I’ll tell you what I think in a few days.  (but really…it’s so obvious, I don’t think you’ll need me to tell you.)

(by the way…I think that last color photo is the best example if you’re trying to guess the celebrity look-alike….)

in the eye of the beholder

This lovely lady has been a friend of mine for several years now.  After speaking with her on the phone for a few minutes this evening, I started thinking about how much I loved her senior pictures, which were taken back in 2007, and I wanted to share some of the images on my blog.  

You can see that Emily is gorgeous, and a dream to photograph.  I may be biased because she’s my friend, but I think the beauty of her spirit is evident, even in photos.  Just talking with her on the phone put me in a good mood for the rest of the evening. 🙂

It is so much fun to photograph high school seniors!  They are up for anything, full of fun, and they tend to be pretty good looking too.  So, if you’re in need of some senior pictures, you should give me a call.  We’ll have a blast, and I will make you look at least as awesome in your pictures as you look in real life.  Promise.

be bold. be emotional.

Lately I am really loving photography with bright, bold colors.

I think the bright green in these photos of my cousin and her son is so fun!

I just love the pop of red & blue in these photos of little ‘A’ and his basketball…

check out the form!

Just as soon as I think I’m convinced that bold colors are the only way to go, I find an image that needs to be black & white.  I love black & white for highlighting the relationship & emotions between my subjects.

For example, these shots of my other cousin and his son:

Here’s baby ‘Z’ with his dad…

and the cute little family…

So…leave me a comment and let me know which look you like better.  Bold & fun?  Or B&W & emotional?

the weekend of the baby.

So….does anyone have any ideas about what happens when you ask every new parent you know (and some you don’t) if they’ll let you photograph their new little one? It is possible that you could end up photographing 5 new babies in the stretch of 4 days.

It seems that this weekend ended up being the best time for several baby shoots, for various reasons. Here’s the schedule:

Yesterday: 10 day old baby ‘E’
Today: 2 day old baby ‘N’
Tomorrow: my 2 baby cousins: ‘E’ and ‘Z’
Monday: 1 month old baby ‘R’

I’ll be sharing pictures from each of these sessions later this weekend, but for now, here’s a sneak peak at little Miss ‘E’.

Thank you!

Well, the auctions closed today at noon, and we were able to raise $305, which helped bring Ty to a grand total of $655, far surpassing his personal goal of $400. I am so excited to have been a part of this! I talked to Ty on the phone this evening, and he’s excited and thankful in his adorable, 5 year old way! 🙂 What a cutie!

I want to be sure to thank everyone who took time to follow the auctions and support this effort by passing the word along! My blog stats tell me that there were up to 70 visitors on the busiest day! That’s awesome. I know the economy isn’t great right now, and several people emailed to tell me they wished they could bid, but just couldn’t afford it this time. Please know that your attention and support is still appreciated and encouraging to me!

Finally, I want to especially thank my super-cool winners! I’m looking forward to working with each of you! When these shoots take place, I will post my favorite photos here on the blog, and I’ll make a point to let you know you’re looking at an auction winner.

Finally, since I think every post deserves a picture (or 3), I’ll post a few.  (Just as an aside…’B’ & I had the best time picking all these sunflowers in the field by her house and weaving them into her porch swing!  If you haven’t picked wildflowers lately, you should.  When spring arrives, of course.)

Make someone happy!

Don’t forget to bid on the American Diabetes Association fundraiser auctions before noon today!  Your bid will make someone happy!  🙂

weddings vs. portraits

You may have noticed that my website is all about wedding photography.  It’s true that I have much more “professional” experience with photographing weddings than children.  Note that “professional” is in quotes.  In reality, I have been photographing children & families for more than 10 years, a bit longer than I’ve been shooting weddings.  However, in many cases I was doing so as a favor (read: free or really cheap) for my many friends with adorable children.  And in all honesty, many times they were doing me a favor by letting me practice on their kids!  I don’t regret this at all…I learned so much from those sessions, and who doesn’t love making your friends happy!   The thing is, when you’re photographing people’s families for free, you don’t really need a website to get jobs.

I’ve always found it easier to market myself to brides than to moms.  Brides have a deadline and a sense of urgency about booking you before someone else does.  They are shopping around, and they have a budget set aside for photography.  They are willing to pay more for a certain style and level of quality. A wedding is “once in a lifetime”, so they can justify paying a little more for the photography that will be the memento of that special day.

Mom, on the other hand, may be thinking that a child’s portrait could be made any time.  In most cases, she is right…there is almost always another day, week or month to make that appointment.  I can’t tell you though, how amazed I am by how fast the time flies.  (I’ll bet you’ve looked at the calendar in shock that it’s already February….I know I have!)  My point is that there will not always be a chance to capture your child at the particular stage she is in right now, and, if life goes as it usually does, it may be next year before it’s convenient.  That’s just the way of life, and I believe it’s the reason I have found it more difficult to build a thriving client base in portraits than in weddings.  

As you may have guessed, I have decided to put more efforts into marketing myself as a portrait photographer this year.  As a matter of fact, this blog is a part of that agenda.  I’m also planning some major revisions to the web site to showcase both sides of my business, and I can’t wait to unveil that to you.  For now, I will rely on blog posts and Flickr to give you a glimpse into my recent portrait work.  

And, with that in mind, here are a couple shots of the adorable baby C from last December.  How cute is he?!?